“Everytime you come up to me, it’s always bad news,” he said when we approached him. When we asked if he’d already anticipated what we’d come to talk about, he simply replied: “I have nothing to say.”

The low-down on Rujano

Exactly how small is that mini Venezuelan climber Jose Rujano? “I weigh 49 or 50kg and am 1.62m tall,” he confirmed from somewhere behind a table at his post stage win press conference at Grossglockner on Friday. A former coffee farm worker, the 29 year old also revealed he still holds the local record for planting the most coffee plants in a day.

Omega on the naughty bench

Omega Pharma-Lotto are clearly the bad boys of this year’s Giro, sitting firmly on the bottom of the Giro’s fair play table before the start of today’s stage. They have 170 penalty points. Next up the list are Acqua & Sapone then Contador’s Saxo Bank team. There are six teams at the top of the table that have yet to be penalised at all. The goodie-two-shoes of the race are Liquigas, Androni Giocattali, HTC-Highroad, Quickstep, BMC and Colnago-CSF.

The Apollo rocket

“Having fast men in the team is key to gaining wins,” David Brailsford told CW.

Team Sky’s principle saw his Italian sprinter, Davide Appollonio nearly stop the world’s best last Thursday in Ravenna. Appollonio latched onto Mark Cavendish’s wheel and took second on the stage.

“I tried from the start of the Giro, I was getting better and remaining optimistic,” said Appollonio. “Ravenna was the first time in my life that I tried to get and stay on Cavendish’s wheel. I remained there, but I can say that I’m happy.”

Sky signed Appollonio from Cervélo TestTeam at the end of last year.

“Sky was fantastic. [Michael] Barry, Pete [Kennaugh], Russ Downing were up there in the sprint for me, but all through the stage, the whole team lent a hand.”

We had to listen closely to Appollonio as his accent is different from most Italians. He is the only professional cyclist from Italy’s Molise region.

Green Garzelli

He couldn’t hold off Mikel Nieve for the stage win but by breaking away on his own on the road from Conegliano to Gardeccia, Stefano Garzelli came away with more than just second place on Sunday.

Leading the race over three of the day’s climbs, Garzelli catapulted himself into the green king of the mountains jersey. Before the start of today’s mountain time trial, Garzelli had 62 points to Nieve’s 39 and Contador’s 38.

The competition is far from over, though, with a maximum of 82 points available over the six remaining days of the race. Garzelli also claimed the Clima Coppi prize that day, awarded to the first man to the top of highest climb in the race. That was the Passo Giau at 2236m.

When the cold sets in

So cold was Laurent Didier in the soaking aftermath of the Monte Zoncolan stage, the Saxo Bank domestique couldn’t even afford his mechanic a high five. Last man back to the team bus, 4km down the back side of the climb, the mechanic raised his hand but a sodden and shivering Didier could only leave him hanging.

The Luxembourg rider comes from a family of professional cyclists. His Grandfather Bim Diederich held the yellow jersey at the Tour de France for three days and won three stages. His father Lucien Didier rode for Renault and helped the team win six editions of the Tour with Bernard Hinault and Laurent Fignon. He also won a stage of the Giro in 1982.